My Lasik experience

I underwent a LASIK procedure on January 11 this year. The reason why I didn’t write about it sooner is because…. my eyes did not become perfect. 🙁 They improved to a certain level so that I don’t require glasses or contact lens anymore but it wasn’t 20/20. When I drive I still cannot see road signs that are further away.

I waited six months which is by when most eyes would stabilize but mine remained the same. In fact I don’t know I think it got slightly worse. I panicked and called my doctor and we realized that… exactly a week after I did Lasik… I got pregnant wtf.

And pregnancy can really mess with your vision! Fluctuating hormones, as well as fluid retention, and blood circulation can all affect your eyes and your eyesight during pregnancy.

Women who are pregnant or nursing may experience a fluctuation in their vision and would most likely be left with an over-correction or an under-correction after LASIK eye surgery. (source)

So I guess this is a major reason why my eyes never adjusted back to perfect. After I have Fighter and finish breast feeding, I plan to go back and see what can be done though.

I’ve decided to blog about my experience anyway for those who are considering the procedure!

Actually months before my wedding last year, I was contacted by Vista Eye Specialist clinic at the Curve. They approached me about undergoing Lasik before my big day, so I’d have the convenience of not having to worry about contact lenses on our big day.

But because I was mildly addicted to contact lenses and couldn’t imagine not wearing my enlarging lens during the wedding, I decided to delay the procedure wtf.

I also wanted to take time to really think about it la. Before this I had never considered getting Lasik cos I rarely have problems with contacts. I’m also very insecure about the size of my irises wtf so I actually like wearing enlarging lens everyday.

I was also quite fearful of anything going wrong. One chance only wor anything goes wrong how to fix!

So I did a lot of reading and research on it. The stats are that nobody has gone blind from Lasik before la. I thought with my luck I might be the first WTF but it was minimal enough a risk for me.

Also I thought when I got older I’d be less likely to wear enlarging contacts (or contacts even wtf) so I thought I might as well take the chance to get Lasik done now.

Thus started a whole barrage of tests and consultations with the surgeon. I’m sure other clinics are like that too, but my experience was that Vista was very thorough in conducting various tests so that they could be certain I (and my eyes) was a good candidate for Lasik. Because I was also initially very hesitant and kept vacillating and coming back to talk to the doctor and advisors repeatedly, we ended up delaying it like seven months hahaha. But they were very patient and answered the same questions over and over again.

Before I did the tests though, I had to lay off my contact lens and wear glasses for 14 days.

This was the hardest part for me!!! Not to say I super celeb la but because of blogging I invariable had events to attend or shoots to do. How to do shoot with glasses hahahaha. After delaying for another few months I finally managed to clear schedule for two weeks and stayed off lenses.

The tests that I had to do, besides checking on my exact level of shortsightedness, astigmatism and night glare, checked stuff like the thickness of my cornea, eyeball pressure and moisture level of my eyes.

Then on the day before the surgery, I had to go for another round of the same tests! This is to make sure nothing had changed in my eyes since then which would affect the Lasik configuration and results.

As luck would have it………. suddenly the day before the surgery….my eyeball pressure registered higher than normal which could be a sign of glaucoma FML. So instead of proceeding with surgery Vista was very cautious and I ended up spending the entire next day at the clinic doing an eyeball pressure test every hour FML. The pressure of the liquid in the eyeball actually fluctuates during the day so we had to track it hourly to check if it suddenly spiked or remained constantly high.

Turned out everything was ok. -_- Suay max I always have these kinda false scares one.

Anyway we rescheduled the surgery. And again, the day before I had to do the tests again to confirm everything was ok before proceeding.

This time I took pictures!

One of the tests!

I also had a detailed “mapping” called iDesign done on my eyes to determine what needed to be corrected and how the laser would do it.

Then because it’s a surgery, we had to suit up wtf. You obviously can’t wear makeup (especially eye makeup) and they made me wash my face right before I entered surgery too!

With my surgeon Dr Aloysius and Mummy Ooi who came with me for moral support.

Deng deng deng.

Mummy Ooi was watching the procedure from a screen and she was damn freaked out hahahah.

In truth I was terrified too. T___T It didn’t hit me until I had to lie in the chair and and there was this contraption and bright lights above me.

There were 2 steps to it. The first step was to use a tool called the IntraLase Laser to create a flap on my cornea based on the detailed mapping of my eyes obtained from iDesign before vision correction takes place in Step 2 using the precise excimer laser. What I had to do was keep very still (the head rest was shaped to hold my head). There was a ring of pinpoint lights that I had to focus on to keep my eyeball still. If I looked out of that ring, the machine would detect the movement and automatically shut off to prevent any accidents.

I knew it but still I WAS SO DAMN SCARED!!!!!!! Cos it is my eyes after all!

I focused on the ring, and the doctor put something on top of my eyeball — maybe a sort of clamp to hold it in place and prevent me from blinking.

I felt some pressure but no pain cos of the anesthetic eye drops. I saw some colorful blurry stuff going on – I dunno cos of the clamp pressing on my eyeball or the cutting itself. But in twenty seconds, the doctor said ok done.

WAH!

The other eye took another twenty seconds literally.

Then from there, they moved me into another chair for Step 2 – the laser itself.

This time I had to focus on a single orange light instead of the ring of lights. Same thing, clamp, then a feeling of pressure followed by colorful blurry vision.

Again I didn’t feel anything in a few minutes I was done. 😀

I was so relieved but at the same time, Dr Aloysius was very good at calming me down! He’d say what he was doing, like “ok now I’m moving on to the other eye…” and tell me how long more it’d take. It really reassured me la that he was so calm and knew what he was doing and told me what to expect so I wouldn’t be so scared.

After the operation which took a total of about fifteen minutes, the nurses led me out to a resting area where I could sit and close my eyes to rest them for a while. My eyesight started out blur but after resting it would become clearer and clearer!

The nurses also gave me a whole bag of medicine – antibiotics, eye drops, etc – and strict instructions on when to take the meds and how to care for my eyes.

For a week after that I also had to wear these to sleep. HAHAHAHA.

They’re to prevent me from accidentally rubbing my eyes in my sleep.

The next day I went back for a follow up check.

By this time, I woke up in the morning and happily realized that my eyesight had improved leaps and bounds even from the night before!

Dr Aloysius making sure everything was ok/on track with my eyes.

Explanation. Hahaha I look damn panicked wtf.

Nothing is wrong la! Hahaha.

After the 24 hour checkup, I went back for another checkup at 1 month, then I’m due for another one at six months and then a year later. So it’s not like the clinic will forget about you afterwards wtf.

So now it’s six months down the road and these are the conclusions I made:

1. I’m the only person out of everyone I know who has done Lasik whose eyes didn’t go to perfect vision or near perfect. -_- But I’m pretty sure it’s because of my pregnancy. Once my hormones stabilize, we’ll find out if things actually get better for me. But right now it’s still good enough that I don’t have to wear glasses or contacts to see.

2. My eyes did get drier, a common side effect. As a result, cosmetic contact lenses are less comfortable to wear for long periods now so I usually only wear them for events or shoots. It’s good to let my eyes breathe anyway — if before I’d be wearing them for like 18 hours straight.

3. I got used to not wearing enlarging lenses hahahaha. Still cuter with lenses of course wtf but I don’t think I look soooo bad now without them hahaha.

4. My get ready time in the morning and night has been cut down so much! It didn’t really bother me before but now that I don’t have to do it, I do like the freedom to just fall asleep any time without reminding myself to get up to remove my contacts hahaha. Plus I don’t have to lug solution, lens case etc with me when I travel now. The convenience is a huge plus la.

This was my experience at Vista! I wrote down my personal experience so people have more information about Lasik and hopefully it will aid you in making a decision in future whether it’s right for you.

Lasik is an operation after all and is a huge decision so please take your time to figure out if this is right for you, which clinic, etc. Good luck!

Hi Audrey!! Thank you so much for this post. I’m turning 19 this year and really want to do LASIK once I hit 21 so this helps a lot! 🙂 hope your vision will become perfect after giving birth and breast feeding! Btw can I ask how bad were your myopia for each eye? Thank you 🙂

Anonymous

hi Audrey! I don’t comment often but wanted to say I like your style of combining advertising with blogging! I really don’t like those blogs that just promote everything with super a lot of enthusiasm cos I’m pretty sure it’s the money that drives the comments. but at least you try to give your (hopefully) fairly honest POV on things and let us decide. mostly. 🙂 alsooo… asia-pac blog advertising vs US blog advertising is so different!

Pinksterz

I did lasik almost a year ago and had to go through a second procedure last april as well because I had overcorrection ans remaining astigmatism. Hehe.

Shirley

Hi Audrey, i am a reading from Singapore. i did my lasik years ago too. never regret cos i no longer need to wear glasses and contacts. suffer from cornea infection due to contacts and almost went blind. but now i m glad i did lasik =)

kat

Thanks for the info. I’m planning on getting Lasik in a year so it’s good to know this kind of information. =^-^=nnapieceofmi.blogspot.comnn- kat

Mikka

I would love to get “Lasik” because having contact lenses all the time sucks. Hehe. I hope your eyes will get better when you give birth. 🙂 And you do look cute without your lenses, don’t think otherwise. 😀 Thanks for the info! nn-Mikkanhttp://www.diary.forever-sweet.net

pikapikh

Aud, I heard people saying that after lasik, their eyes are more sensitive to bright light or even the sun. Is it true in your experience?

Fourfeetnine

For the first 2 weeks or so ya! The clinic provided me sunglasses to wear. But then after that no issues

Fourfeetnine

Good luck!!

Danielle

Hi Aud. How high was your degree for each eye and how much was the cost for the whole procedure? I have been surveying on lasik cost recently as I am planning to do it end of this year. Thanks.

Fourfeetnine

It was damn bad! -7.50 each for both eyes

Fourfeetnine

Mine was -7.50 each for both eyes. It came up to about RM12k for both eyes

mosfets

This was really useful! Thank you so much!

TracyL213

iLASIK is a combination of the most advanced FDA-approved technologies that is so clinically beneficial, it’s Dr. Arffa’s standard of care for every one of his LASIK patients. With an advanced suite of fully integrated iLASIK technologies, your personal LASIK experience can be customized from start to finish.

isabellmiao

I heard my colleagues experiences with Lasik and they made it sound so scary like cutting up your eyeballs and etc. You make it sound so much less scary.. phew. At least when I need to choose between Lasik or die, I would rather choose Lasik than dying. LOL

FF

Hi Aud,nnafter the LASIK, wad is ur degree for now? How much did you improve? wad about night glare? i have a same case like urs.. bad eyesight but probably worse than urs -.-.

Thuy

I’ve had Lasik done as well and it was the best money I’ve ever spent.nnA friend of mine had to get a whole new set of contacts and glasses when she got pregnant. Her eyesight was really bad but it went back to normal after she gave birth. It’s not very uncommon for things like your eyesight to change during pregnancy.

Fourfeetnine

yay i hope mine works out too!

Fourfeetnine

i don’t know what my degree is right now cos i’m only going for my checkup next week! but like i said, it improved to a point where i don’t really need to wear glasses although it’s not 100% sharp. my night glare improved a lot, i used to have it really bad!

Fourfeetnine

HAHAHA WHY U LIDDIS

Fourfeetnine

welcome!

Fourfeetnine

you’re welcome!

Fourfeetnine

yea i had an infection before too due to contacts!

Fourfeetnine

D: hope everything is ok now for you?

Fourfeetnine

haha what’s US blog advertising like?

air

12k for both eyes?! I thought it was about 5k for both eyes. Does the price vary depending on the client’s condition?

Ya it was about 5k+ per eye which came to about rm12k. But I think it also depends on the patient and the particular technology they use ah?

Mich

Dr Aloysius was my doctor too! My degree was really bad so after the six hour sleep I woke up and without opening my eyes automatically reached for my glasses lol nnAnd then I opened my eyes and was all “OMG I CAN SEE! HALLELUJAH”nnThen I symbolically stepped on my glasses and broke them.nnOkay not so dramatic but I did bid them goodbye 😀 nnOh, I was so scared during surgery that Doctor Aloysius asked me to ‘relax’ because apparently I was ‘frozen’ LOL nnDo you find that your eyes are a bit more dry now? I am keeping the eye drops industry in business but IT’S ALL WORTH IT NOT TO WEAR GLASSES 😀 n

Lyna

Did u revert to wearing cosmetic/circle lens after ur lasik procedure? If yes, how soon and dies it feel the same, compared to before lasik?

Fourfeetnine

No I think my eyes are totally normal now! I never had a problem with dry eyes even with contact lenses before. But if I wear contacts now yea I do feel a bit dry. If not totally no problems wor

Fourfeetnine

No I didn’t. I sometimes wear them for a few hours for events and stuff but I don’t wear them regularly now. After a while my eyes tend to get a bit tired and dry :/

Manish

I think you are very lucky that you have no side effects post Lasik. My lasik done a year ago at the famous Visual Aids centre Delhi, India has left me with zombie vision. I am as good as a blind person in night with light sensitivity, halos and star bursts. And have been gifted with contrast loss and dry eyes during the day.

jess

thanks for sharing… now i’ll do it… dare to take a risk ..wtf..

Nora

Hi Audrey,nThanks for the info – I am going for screening test in less than 2 weeks time!nThey told me not to wear makeup (eye+facial) for the surgery – but do you have to be make up free for the screening test itself?

Steve

If you are experiencing problems from LASIK surgery such as, dry eyes, halos, star-bursts, glare, blurry vision, double vision, etc.. you may want to check out the site http://www.lasikfailures.com nThey specialize in the treatment of post-LASIK problems (without further surgery).

Fourfeetnine

you’re welcome! all the best in your surgery if you ever decide to do it

Fourfeetnine

I don’t think so but I wouldn’t wear eye makeup for the tests 🙂

Heather

Hi Audrey, I was wondering how long after the surgery then can wear contact lens? And how long can you wear them? Thank you!!!

Dr Nitin Deshpande

Normal activities can be done after 4-5 days. However swimming and water sports can be resumed after 3 months.nwww.shreeramkrishnanetralaya.com n

Lasik surgery

Thanks for these great insights to create an impact post with valuable content which will surely help.

Hi fourfeetnine, like to check if your vision got better after your hormones stablised because like you, i’m the only person out of the everyone i know who has done lasik but vision isn’t perfect or near perfect either -.-